Channelling the textural intensity and weight of metal, doom, sludge and other heavy music, but taking these elements in totally different directions, these acts will surely deliver all-out powerhouse performances to sonically overwhelm you. In the process, they showcase the rich overlap between electronic and guitar-based music, and the fruitful crossover between club and metal.
Friday
Start in the basement of The Grey Space and get drawn in the immersive sound world of the Netherlands-based musician and visual artist Mathilde Nobel, who takes a deconstructed club approach to her ethereal music, in which unrolling pads and angelic voices are often interspersed with clattering drums.
Then head to PAARD II to get your brain scrambled by Zoë Mc Pherson & Alessandra Leone, performing a staggering A/V based on Zoë Mc Pherson’s cybernetic rave opus Pitch Blender.
Stay in PAARD II for a percussive blast by ABADIR feat. HOGIR, a wild collaboration that combines ABADIR’s rhythmic club blends with the forceful live percussion of HOGIR.
For a final assault on your senses, head back to The Grey Space - Basement to experience the boundary-pushing 'nihilist queer revolt musik’ of Dreamcrusher, ranging from noise, punk, and industrial to experimental electronics.
Watch "Dreamcrusher - "Two" ("Panopticon!" 2020)" by "Dreamcrusher" on https://www.youtube.com/
Saturday
Explore the past and future of analogue tape composition with Paul Purgas’ Tape Music, which takes inspiration from musique concrète and the experimental output of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with reel-to-reel tape machines, alongside the avant-garde cybernetic music compositions of David Tudor.
Follow it up with a tricky dilemma: either the equal-parts brutal and beautiful array of banging hardcore rave, inward-looking chamber music, and artful punk by 33 (Billy Bultheel & Alexander Iezzi) or the boisterous instrumental anthems by post-rock’s most iconic and beloved group Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
A no-brainer is the world premiere of Alto Arc’s liveshow. This supergroup, consisting of Deafheaven frontman George Clarke, maverick pop producer Danny L Harle, Trayer Tryon from Hundred Waters, and make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench, is a match made in heaven – or in hell, featuring highly stylized, maximalist, spellbinding music that verges on the grotesque, the sublime, and the macabre.
Watch "ALTO ARC - "Bordello" (Official Video)" by "Sargent House" on https://www.youtube.com/
Another mind blowing collaboration is VOID, the live A/V show of Slikback x Weirdcore, which combines Slikback’s awesome hybrid of contemporary club styles like techno, dubstep, jungle, breakbeat, footwork, trap, and drill with the mind-bending and technology-driven visuals of Weirdcore.
Sunday
Following his performance of his masterful piece Konoyo at Rewire 2019, Renowned Canadian musician and sound artist Tim Hecker is back to perform music from his brand-new album No Highs. The immersive stage and lightning design is made by multidisciplinary artist Vincent de Belleval.
Watch "Lotus Light" by "Tim Hecker - Topic" on https://www.youtube.com/
For some more electronic experimentation, venture to PAARD II to witness the spontaneous and in the moment, MIDI-jams of Church Andrews & Matt Davies, who have found a unique approach to their compositions and performances of electronic music, in which Andrews’s synth sounds and Davies’s drum performances act in response to one another.
Stick around to be part of the world premiere of a new show by No Plexus, featuring stage and light design by Emmanuel Biard. As Rewire’s Young Artist in Residence for 2023 and 2024, this electronic duo comprising of Bec Plexus and No Compliments, create and perform experimental electronic music that is conceptual, through-composed, and genre-defying. Their new show will surely be a festival highlight and a fitting conclusion to Rewire 2023.